THE OBENSON REPORT

From Yahoo News:

- Actors Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman braved the specter of armed kidnappers and fierce hyenas when they set out on a motorcycle journey in Africa but what they encountered was quite different: little violence and curious kids. A documentary film, "Long Way Down," which shows just how peaceful their journey was, will enjoy a brief run in theaters starting on Thursday, then appear on television on the Fox Reality Channel beginning on Saturday. McGregor, 37... said the documentary of his three-month trek from Scotland to South Africa upends many past portrayals of Africa. "We are bombarded with two things, images of famine and wildlife, and we (McGregor and Boorman) always felt that there's a lot of other sides to that continent and I hope that we showed that," he told Reuters.

I'm reminded of Bill O'Reilly's comments last September on his radio show, relating his experience - apparently his first - in Sylvia's, a black-owned and operated restaurant in Harlem, stating, "I couldn't get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia's restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it's run by blacks, primarily black patronship... There wasn't one person in Sylvia's who was screaming, 'M-Fer, I want more iced tea.'"

Even though McGregor's response to his expedition doesn't come off as smug as O'Reilly's did, it's still a reminder of just how insular we really are, especially those of us in the west, pummelled by biased local media companies, from where the majority of us get the bulk of our news about the rest of the world, creating an unfortunate mass of rather xenophobic, uninformed citizens.

If only we could all be like Matt :o)